How serious are the injuries?

Volunteer firefighter Olivier Béziade, 47, was shot in the temple by a riot gun during a protest on 12 January in Bordeaux. Video at the time caught him running from police and then collapsing in the street, his face covered in blood.

He was taken to hospital, treated for a brain haemorrhage and left in an artificial coma, from which he emerged on Friday.

Image copyrightAFPImage caption
Olivier Béziade was critically wounded on 12 January in Bordeaux and only emerged from a coma on Friday

He was one of five seriously wounded on that day alone.

Many of those wounded have been young. One teenager called Lilian Lepage was hit in the face in Strasbourg on Saturday and suffered a broken jaw. His mother said he had been shopping in the city centre when a policeman fired at him.

Two schoolboys were badly wounded by flash-ball pellets in separate protests last month.

Campaigners say a dozen people have lost an eye, although the details have not been corroborated.

A lawyer for some of the victims, Étienne Noël, said many had been maimed. He said police did not have sufficient training in use of the riot guns and many victims had been hit in the head.

What do French authorities say?

Earlier this week police made clear the riot gun would be used only where security forces faced violence or if they had no other means of defence. Only the torso and upper or lower limbs could be targeted.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told the French Senate on Thursday that the use of force by police was always proportionate and under very strict and controlled conditions.

"If the police hadn't used these means of defence perhaps some of them would have been lynched," he said.